


Turn the Page

by mollyscribbles



Category: Enchanted (2007)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-20
Updated: 2008-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-25 05:01:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1632881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mollyscribbles/pseuds/mollyscribbles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A day in Giselle's life, pre-movie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Turn the Page

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Ki

 

 

Once upon a time, in a magical kingdom known as Andalasia, there lived a young maiden called Giselle.

Though it was bright and sunny and an altogether lovely afternoon, this day found Giselle inside, curled up in her window seat with one of her favourite books, two bluebirds and a mouse reading over her shoulder.

Books weren't easy to come by, in Andalasia. Though the printers always priced their wares reasonably, they were too expensive for the average citizen to purchase on a whim. Giselle knew this well, and treasured each volume in her meager library. She adored every story, every history, every tale of girls from other lands. The hidden princesses and -- her favourite -- the ordinary girls like her who went on wonderful adventures to find their true love.

Before she died, Giselle's mother had told her that, like the fair Queen Aurora, the fairies had come to her baptism to bless her with gifts. When Giselle asked which ones, her mother always said, "Wait and see" with a knowing smile.

As she grew older, Giselle began to wonder if that had simply been a story her mother had told. Certainly, she had been blessed with an abundance of forest friends and loved them all dearly, but that wasn't the sort of thing fairies generally picked. She could sing quite well, but who in the world couldn't? Every last rabbit and mouse she knew could carry a tune and would always join in her songs. She was beautiful, but felt she was no more and no less so than her mother had been.

She shrugged off this train of thought and returned to her reading, content in the moment.

There was no greater pleasure for her than to lose herself in a good book -- to imagine what it would be like to go through the adventures herself, to see other lands. . . and, best of all, to meet her true love, get married, and live happily ever after.

Suddenly, there came a commotion from outside. Giselle slipped a stray feather into the book to hold her place and opened her window to look out. The birds flapped their way outside to see for themselves. Was it a kindly neighbour who needed her help, a traveller wishing for a place to rest?

"GISELLE!" screamed Pip, as he scampered in the window, "You gotta come quick! Some girl's flipped, she's gonna kill the poor guy!"

Giselle gasped. "Who, Pip?"

"The new girl! She's got this axe, and she's chasing that nice wolf guy you had over for dinner last week . . ."

"There must be some mistake! We'd better go stop her." Giselle opened the window wider and nimbly climbed out, calling to her forest friends, "Everyone! Come quick! Rudy needs our help! Pip, lead the way."

The chipmunk scampered through the forest, and the maiden followed. 

As they passed the well, she thought to grab the half-full water bucket. Glancing back a moment, Giselle noted they weren't alone - a fawn, half a dozen rabbits, three mice, and a flock of birds were joining in, with a turtle bringing up the rear.

Before long, Giselle began to hear poor Rudy's cries for help. Soon after that, she caught sight of him. He was scrambling around the corner of a house, managing to outrun the girl in the red cloak with her axe - for now.

"Little girl, stop that! You are not being a very nice person!" Giselle was a bit shocked at herself for the harsh comment, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

The girl in the red cloak glanced up when she called. Pausing in her pursuit, axe raised high, Pip seized the opportunity to act.

"OW!"

With one nibble to a finger, she dropped the axe and tried to shake the chipmunk free. Giselle ran forward and tossed the bucket of water over the girl's head, startling her to a standstill.

The fawn rushed over to help drag her axe away where she couldn't grab it, and the mice scurried underneath to help it along.

Giselle huffed a sigh. Why would someone act like this? It made no sense! Well, she might as well ask . . . "Why did you attack Rudy like that? I can't imagine what he might have done to you."

Wiping the water off her face with a corner of her cloak, Red Riding Hood glared at the wolf. "My mother told me that I needed to watch out for any mean wolves in the woods! He was going to attack me! Why shouldn't I be angry and fight back?"

This caught Giselle's attention. Angry? Well, she'd read about anger, but never seen it firsthand before.

Catching his breath, Rudy had taken a seat on a tree stump a safe distance from the girl. He took the chance to speak up. "I didn't attack you! I just saw you on the path on my way to my grandmother's house and thought I'd say hello. I thought you might be new to the forest and wanted to be friendly."

"But my mom said . . ." she trailed off, her shoulders slumping as the anger drained from her. After a silent moment, she said in a small voice, "I thought you were going to eat me. I'm sorry. She always told me that wolves would come and gobble me up if I strayed off the path, and I'd stopped to pick some flowers on the way from the blacksmith's with my daddy's new axe, and I thought . . . I'm really sorry!"

The girl in red began to cry, so forlorn was she at the realization of what she'd done. By this time, a small crowd of forest creatures had gathered around to watch the scene.

Rudy had been sitting quietly through her speech, taking it all in. Finally, he stepped forward with a tenative smile. "Well . . . if you promise not to do it again, I forgive you."

Sniffing, she looked at him with cautious optimism. "Really? I promise I won't, I just got so scared - I won't do it again."

Grinning, Rudy reached out a paw to shake. "Friends, then?"

Wearing a grin to match his, she took his paw and shook it. "Friends!" 

Giselle smiled at them. "I'm happy you could work this out! It's always wonderful to make new friends. I'm Giselle, and this is Rudy."

Her chipmunk friend popped over her shoulder and chipped in, "And I'm Pip!"

"It's nice to meet you. Everyone calls me Red Riding Hood, because of the cloak my grandmother made me."

"And a very nice cloak it is," Giselle said. "Would you like to come to my house for tea and cakes? I think we could all use a snack, after this little adventure."

Rudy looked up. "Can my Grandma come? I kind of got distracted from my visit to her."

"The more, the merrier!" Giselle chirped.

"Yay! I'll go get her!" With that, Rudy ran inside to let his grandmother know the good news.

Red Riding Hood looked up at Giselle with a smile. "This is great! I hadn't seen any kids nearby, so I was worried that I wouldn't be able to make new friends here."

"There are always new friends to be found, if you know where to look," Giselle said.

"Really?"

"Really!"

 


End file.
